I am told that Logsaria Bornest would be properly put to rest, so I entrusted his body and then headed once more towards the castle, when Feli stopped me.
âIf you speak to King Leric, you wonât be able to go back on your word anymore!! If someone not properly trained as Your Highness stands on the battlefield, it will only mean that there will be another corpse to buryâŚ!!â
ââŚ.thatâs right.â
âThen whyâŚâ
Feliâs concerns are well-founded. There is no room for objections. Before her, I have never even touched a sword. However, I have something called pride.
âListen, head maid.â
Since there is no one else to hear us, I go back to calling her head maid.
âI will never break a promise made on the brink of death. No matter what.â
It was the same in my past life.
On the brink of death. All requests I heard in such circumstances were carried out, none excluded. In a world brimming with death, a true living hell, that was the only human-like way of thinking.
âBut only someone with ability could do something like thatâŚ.!â
âThat is right too.â
To fulfill a request received by someone on the brink of death was possible only with enough ability. In Feliâs mind, I have no such power. I did not blame her for thinking so. She was wrong, however.
âButâŚâ
My words cut off with strange timing.
Fortunately, we are close to the walls that surround the castle. Those who fled the flames of war are sheltered far from here, so there is not a soul in the surroundings. It shouldnât be a problem to do it here.
âI cannot swing a sword? Has anyone, anywhere, truly said that?â
My mouth bursts open, shattered by laughter. My lips curve in a creepy smile.
The sudden twist in the atmosphere was surely very far from the usual Fay Hanse Diestburg. Feli, initially shocked, finally managed to speak.
âYour Highness, youâŚâ
âNo unnecessary questions. Draw your sword, Feli. Thatâs the most effective way of proving it to you, isnât it?â
If correcting a subordinateâs mistake is the superiorâs duty, then I must correct Feliâs mistaken assumption. A pitch-black sword appeared in my right hand, as if out of thin air.
Bloodline techniques.
In the world I lived in during my past life, there was no such thing as magic: all abilities exceeding human limits belonged to this category.
Normally, one person could use up to one bloodline technique. It all depended on oneâs parentsâ bloodline techniques, which blended to bestow unique techniques to their offspring. In my current life, my bloodline technique is treated as magic, but for me, this âSpadaâ is my bloodline technique.
A skill that creates a sword from my own shadow. Extremely simple but also extremely powerful. It gained power the thicker my shadow was, and lost it the thinner it was. Since itâs still sunset, it was on the weak side at the moment.
âBesidesâ
I speak completely honestly.
âIf I ever intended to wield a sword again, I intended to show it to you before anyone else.â
âTo meâŚ?â
âYes, to you.â
Feli looked puzzled.
âYouâre someone who would give up her life for the royal family, arenât you? Even for the sake of a âTrash Princeâ. So I wanted to show you that Iâm not someone that has to be protected by a maid. I wanted to prove it to you.â
Someone who would gladly die for the sake of the royal family, for my sake. So I wanted to put a stop to such thinking.
âYou are not going to protect me. Iâm going to protect you.â
ââŚ..â
Maybe because of my firm attitude, quite different from my usual flippant self, Feli looked different than usual.
âIf you donât want me to go on the battlefield, then try to stop me, here and now. Oh, and you better not hold back.â
I have led a slothful lifestyle that earned me the nickname of âTrash Princeâ. In this lifestyle, especially curious were the long hours I spent sleeping. They are the reason why I told Feli not to go easy on me.
In the end, I kept dragging my previous life with me. It appeared in my dreams: I kept reminiscing about my past in my sleep, in the form of lucid dreams.
Since such dreams included the deaths of those important to me and my own death, normally one would find them excruciating, but I did not. My spirit was broken down to the point that I did not experience them as nightmares. They were unable to move my heart.
Because of this, no one offered me any sympathy, and I was simply thought to be a lazy degenerate.
In these long hours of sleeping, I always had a sword in hand. I wielded it, swung it. As if reminiscing about my past. This is why I told Feli not to hold back.
My physical body pales in comparison to my previous one, but my skill was preserved intact. If I only accept the fact that my body would be burdened, I canâ
âYou see?â
I convince her in a gentle tone.
With the skills honed in my past life, I approach her instantly and look at her surprised face from very close.
âIf you hold back, itâll all finish in an instant.â
âW-when did you!?â
Ground Shrink. One of the skills said to be the apex of martial arts.
Feli also lived by the blade: she surely knew about it and would understand quickly. Her confusion, however, persisted. How could that âTrash Princeâ know a technique like Ground Shrink? She surely couldnât wrap her mind about it.
Feli hurriedly jumped backward and put distance between us. She understood that I was not an opponent to underestimate after all.
I then made a proposal.
âHead maid, how about a little gamble?â
ââŚ.what kind?â
âIf you win, I will obediently stop what I was going to do. I will listen to what you say, as much as possible, as long as we are in Afillis. But ifâŚâ
I wait for the perfect timing, then raise my voice.
âIf I win, weâll take a long vacation, together!â
ââŚ.w-what!?â
Ignoring her perplexed reaction, I continue.
âWell, you see, my esteemed father was troubled too. About the fact that the head maid never takes a break. If she doesnât, it makes it difficult for her subordinates to take days off: itâs a vicious cycle, we need to do something about itâŚcomplaints that I happened to eavesdrop. I just recalled it, hence the gamble.â
âE-eavesdropping!? Your Highness, youâre such aâŚ.!â
âAh, no misunderstanding. Itâs not that I want to enjoy a long vacation with you. This proposal stems from the fact that I figured out a way to prevent a certain maid from disrupting my precious vacation time!â
ââŚyes, of course, I knew that much. You donât have the slightest interest in an old woman like me.â
Feli laughed at my hopelessness. Her expression seemed rather natural.
Until we arrived in the Afillis kingdom, Feli was the person who worried about me the most, which might have prompted me to spout something insane.
âI think youâre pretty, though?â
ââŚ.yes?â
âAh, wait a second. I said something weird, didnât I? I feel like I just said something totally stupidâŚâ
âAs long as I have not heard wrong, then yes, you probably have.â
âAaaahhh!!! I didnât mean that, okay!? You just heard wrong!! I just said that I want avocado stew for dinner tonight!!!!!!â
Yes, I definitely said that I felt like having avocado stew for dinner. I most positively did not express that I saw this almost 100 years old elf grandma with looks closer to 20 years old as a woman.
Her tone didnât fit her age either anyway, was she really almost 100 years oldâŚ? But the more I looked at her the more I realized how pretty she wasâŚ
âWhoa! That was dangerous. I was about to fall for the enemyâs trapâŚâ
âYour Highness, if I may, you are just rambling by yourselfâŚâ
âOkay then, game time is over. I have a duty to fulfill the promise I made to Logsaria. Unfortunately, I cannot lose.â
âThatâs a rather rough way to cut off the topicâŚbut my years of experience with the sword have not been spent for nothing. Your Highness has not even practice regularly, so there is no way I can-â
Lose.
Before Feli could finish her sentence, I interrupted her.
âOne slash, one kill. My heart, my body is forever a battlefield.â
My agitated heart and mind turned still and clear. For me, it was something like a charm. My mentor used to say it all the time, so I ended up developing the same habit. That âcharmâ, however, changed Feliâs expression.
The aura around her was sharpened to a point, a clear difference from how she looked during her service as a maid. Her hands were already wielding her longsword, her previous hesitating self completely gone.
âIâm relying on you in this life too, huh.â
I caress the darkness-colored hilt and speak. To my shadow sword âSpadaâ, of course.
People often say that objects used with love for a long time would gain a soul. I personally believe that my Spada is no exception.
âSoon enough, youâll be able to rampage as much as you want. But donât hurt the head maid.â
There is no answer, of course. Even so, sometimes I have the feeling that my âSpadaâ has a conscience of its own.
âLetâs do this.â
I looked at Feli, already in a battle stance, and took one too. How many times have I wielded a sword while thinking that I didnât want to kill my opponent?
In the end, I was alone, though. I had some enjoyable moments, even in that world.
I can finally understand a little the meaning of your words, Lantis. I donât want to strike down Feli. No matter how much trash I might be, I still want to protect who cares about me.
You were rightâŚweâre really starved for some kindness.
âMake sure you dodge this.â
Iâve never said something like this before, as I smile defiantly.